1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communication systems; and more particularly to multimedia communications, e.g., voice, data and video communications and the manner in which these communications are serviced across differing networks.
2. Related Art
Voice communications provided by the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and wireless networks are well known. For many years, the PSTN and wireless networks have voice communications worldwide. The PSTN has become so pervasive that most persons and businesses depend upon the services it provides as a part of their daily lives. In much the same way as the PSTN has achieved an almost complete penetration of the consumer and business markets, cellular wireless networks are growing at breakneck speeds. Many customers are now dependent upon their cellular telephones to support most, if not all, of their voice communication requirements, displacing in part the services previously provided by the PSTN.
The PSTN and the wireless networks support other services besides voice communications. Examples of these services include voice mail, conference calling and call forwarding, among other teleservices. As a general rule, different PSTN service providers provide differing sets of teleservices. Further, within a particular service provider""s service area, some teleservices may not be available across all portions of the service area. Many teleservices require expensive central office equipment that is not justified in lightly populated portions of the service area. Thus, a user may not be able to receive all desired teleservices when traveling.
The Internet has also recently been used in the routing of voice communications. Internet telephony (IP telephony) may be established using specialized IP telephony equipment that connects directly to the Internet or to the Internet via another packet-switched. network. Alternatively, an IP telephony call may be established using IP telephony gateways, each of which couples to the Internet and couples to a respective party via the PSTN. Thus, IP telephony is employed to provide a full or partial routing of calls across the Internet.
Electronic mail (email) has become a staple communication tool over the last decade. With the popularity and availability of personal computers and the Internet, email will soon surpass conventional mail in volume. Currently, the Internet routes a substantial portion of email traffic. However, private networks, and other publicly accessible networks also carry email. Using email requires a terminal device such as a personal computer and, in addition, requires access to a data network that supports the email. Access may be via a direct connection to a mail server coupled to the Internet, to a mail server via an Internet, to a mail server via the PSTN, or via some other communication path. With one of these communication paths established, a mail program resident on a terminal device allows a user to send and receive email.
Video telephony, video teleconferencing and video image streaming are rapidly becoming available. Video teleconferencing, for example, has achieved modest popularity over the past few years, limited mostly by the unavailability and expense of high bandwidth connections between terminal equipment. Video telephony, however, is currently not generally supported although it will likely become feasible with the establishment of high bandwidth IP networks. Video image transfer over the Internet is now quite popular. However, real-time video image transfer is limited by the available bandwidth between terminal devices that may be obtained across the Internet.
Facsimile (Fax) communications have been employed for many years and now are also a staple communication service. Facsimile machines typically communicate over the PSTN. Further, many personal computers having modems also support the transmission and receipt of Faxes. In some instances, the Internet has been employed to provide partial routing of Faxes to reduce routing costs.
All of these types of services may be referred to generally as communication services. While many users would like to have all of these communication services at his or her disposal, significant hurdles currently exist in establishing, maintaining and using these communication services. Differing service providers are required for accessing and using the communication services. For example, most voice services are provided by a telephone company while most email services are provided by Internet service providers. Further, multimedia services typically require the establishment of a high bandwidth service, such service available from many different service providers on a number of different platforms, each of which is difficult to setup and maintain. Generally speaking, most consumers can setup and use voice services, some consumers can obtain and use email services and very few consumers can obtain and use multimedia services.
Another difficulty relating to obtaining and using these communication services relates to the differing terminal equipment and connections required. The PSTN services at least a portion of most voice communications. However, wireless networks and the Internet also service many voice communications. Each of these types of services requires different terminal equipment. The Internet services most email communications. However, sending and receiving email also requires a particular terminal device. Fax transmission and receipt requires another type of terminal equipment. Multimedia services may require still another type of terminal equipment. Moreover, the differing types of services also require differing types of network interfaces. Phones typically require a PSTN connection. However, an Internet connection may require a PSTN, ISDN, DSL, cable modem or other connection. As will be appreciated, providing compatible network connections for each of these services adds additional complexity.
Thus, currently, a single user desiring to use all of these communication services must maintain multiple terminal devices and multiple network connections. Typically, a consumer will have a telephone, a personal computer and, if the consumer desires to receive video communication services, the user will have a specialized video communication device. Further, the user must obtain these services from a plurality of service providers, thus increasing the complexity and cost of obtaining the services.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system and method that provides communication services without the complexities and difficulties described above.
Thus, to overcome the shortcomings of the prior systems, among other shortcomings, a virtual assistant system (VAS) constructed according to the present invention supports communication services that were previously only available via differing communication networks and from differing service providers. In providing these communication services, the VAS interfaces to both a telephone network and to a data network. The telephone network may be the PSTN and/or another telephone network. The data network may be the Internet, an Intranet or another data network in which communications are packet based.
The VAS supports/provides call services, message services and profile services. The call services include call receipt services, call initiation services, conference calling services and other types of services in which calls are initiated, routed and/or completed and that are typically provided by a telephone company. The message services include voice mail, email, Faxes, video mail, and other types of messages that include one or more types of media, e.g., audio or visual. The profile services uniquely identify each subscriber and provide contact information for the subscriber.
A user""s profile includes personal information for a corresponding subscriber, such personal information including the subscriber""s name, the subscriber""s address, and all pertinent contact information for the subscriber, e.g., home phone number(s), work phone number(s), mobile phone number(s), email address(es), IP address(es), pager number(s) and other information that may be employed to contact the subscriber. The profile also includes a plurality of reach lists for the subscriber, each reach list including a set of contact numbers/addresses for the subscriber. Corresponding to each reach list is a schedule that indicates when the reach list is active.
All communications for the subscriber are received via a single telephone number, IP address (network address) and/or email address. Based upon the content of the reach lists and corresponding schedules, the VAS routes communications and messages to the subscriber and also notifies the subscriber of incoming communications. The VAS also gives the subscriber the option of screening incoming calls. The incoming caller is announced to the subscriber and the subscriber has the option of accepting or rejecting the call. The single number, IP address (network address) and/or email address may also be used to access all messages for the subscriber. When the subscriber accesses messages in his or her mailbox, he or she can perform the following: (1) listen to/send emails; (2) listen to voice mails; (3) forward faxes to a fax machine; (4) reply to emails/voice mails; and (5) delete emails/voice mails/faxes. Thus, the VAS provides single-number access for the subscriber, independent of the subscriber""s physical location or communication contact path.
The VAS may be embodied on a single computer server or upon multiple computer servers. In one embodiment, a plurality of computer servers couples to a communication services packet switched network (CSPSN), each of the computer services providing a particular communication service or network function. In this embodiment, VAS software instructions are resident upon at least one of the computer servers. This embodiment provides flexibility, scalability and simplicity in implementation of the VAS.